WHY A fun and affordable choice for Westwood Village dining. Just don’t fill up on that amazing bread. WHAT The only restaurant around that serves you hot flatbread straight from the tandoor-style oven, Shaherzad is a good place for kebabs, fluffy Persian rice, beef barg and traditional stews. WHO Middle Eastern UCLA students and Iranian [...]
October 28, 2011 | Posted in
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WHY Dosas and southern-style curries in a tech-savvy setting complete with Bollywood offerings on plasma screens. WHAT Annapurna showcases classic southern Indian cooking in an urbane setting (complete with WiFi). Try the ultra-thin paper dosa or a curry accompanied by pickles, chutneys and sambars. 10200 Venice Blvd., Culver City, 310.204.5500, annapurnacuisine.com. L & D daily. [...]
October 28, 2011 | Posted in
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WHY This 35-year-old institution turns out Southern California’s most refined birria. WHAT Unlike most birrierías specializing in Guadalajara’s famous roasted kid specialty, birria, this place doesn’t hedge its bets by serving combination plates or other entrées. The drill is simple: You pile soft shreds of the sweet roasted meat onto a fresh tortilla and moisten [...]
October 28, 2011 | Posted in
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WHY Vast bowls of delicate noodles crowned with flowering basil tops and mint; char-grilled meats arranged over hillocks of raw greens; shrimp rolled around sugarcane sticks; sweet-tart jackfruit salad with pickled lotus roots; and more such crowd-pleasing dishes. WHAT Vietnamese cafés are hip and happening—the light, intensely colorful, vividly flavorful food perfectly suits the L.A. [...]
October 28, 2011 | Posted in
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WHY Very good, close-to-the-earth country-style meals you might expect at a ryokan, or Japanese country inn. WHAT Locavores will love the ingredients—organic vegetables, local free-range chicken and eggs, Santa Barbara prawns, grass-fed beef—that chef Tetsuya Harikawa sources for his simply cooked meals. For rice connoisseurs, the star of the show is the early-crop rice cooked [...]
October 28, 2011 | Posted in
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WHY Intelligent and sometimes almost whimsical dishes like ground chicken with a light miso glaze in lettuce wraps, as well as exquisitely fresh, flown-in-from-Japan sashimi. WHAT This modern izakaya hidden in a shopping center has an airy open kitchen and sleek lines that give it a quiet dignity. Ultra-fine as well as more modest sakes [...]
October 28, 2011 | Posted in
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WHY An excellent range of sakes and very good food to accompany your sake. WHAT The menu at this izakaya and sake bar in a mini-mall offers carefully made classical dishes such as chawan mushi (steamed egg soup), fried eggplant with a miso glaze and pork chunks braised in sukiyaki sauce, as well as some [...]
October 28, 2011 | Posted in
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WHY Well-executed versions of South Africa’s culinary hits: curries, chile sauces, meaty barbecues, a subtly spicy Naidoo’s Durban curry, and tasty kebabs called sosaties. WHAT Because this is L.A.’s only South African restaurant, you might envision a modest, family-owned spot where you could sample a few of those wonderful South African wines and explore a [...]
October 28, 2011 | Posted in
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WHY A pretty place to explore the cuisine of South America. WHAT This dramatically enhanced sibling to William Velasco’s revered 25-year-old restaurant has the mood of a gracious old hacienda, and the food is less Ecuatoriano and more contemporary pan-South American. The libations match luscious tropical fruits with appropriately flavored alcohol: bright citrusy naranjilla (fruitier [...]
October 28, 2011 | Posted in
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WHY The Pioneer rice special, a combination of crispy minced shrimp cake, slabs of grilled marinated pork, delicate steamed egg loaf and a salad garnish, has customers returning again and again. WHAT The small city of Artesia may be famed for Little India, in which this Vietnamese place sits, but in fact it’s as multinational [...]
October 28, 2011 | Posted in
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